Alcoholic Drinks: Misuse

David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  how many admissions to hospital with an alcohol-related diagnosis via accident and emergency departments there were in  (a) the former Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Strategic Health Authority area,  (b) the East of England Strategic Health Authority area,  (c) the West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust area and  (d) the Suffolk Primary Care Trust area in each year since 1997;
	(2)  how many admissions to hospital with an alcohol-related diagnosis via accident and emergency departments involving children under the age of 18 years there were in  (a) the former Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Strategic Health Authority area,  (b) the East of England Strategic Health Authority area,  (c) the West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust area and  (d) the Suffolk Primary Care Trust area in each year since 1997.

Dawn Primarolo: The following table shows finished in-year admission episodes where the patient was admitted via accident and emergency departments with an alcohol-related primary or secondary diagnosis. This is broken down by age and by the patient's primary care trust (PCT) and strategic health authority (SHA) of residence and West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust. The latest available data is for 2006-07.
	
		
			   East of England SHA area( 1)  of residence  Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire SHA of residence  Suffolk PCT area of residence  West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust 
			   Under 18  18 and over  n/k  Under 18  18 and over  n/k  Under 18  18 and over  n/k  Under 18  18 and over  n/k 
			 2006-07 497 9,522 6 203 4,700 * 37 1,124 * 13 562 * 
			 2005-06 485 8,970 * 242 4,357 * 50 924 * 22 388 * 
			 2004-05 538 7,945 * 258 3,680 * 85 1,315 * 37 377 * 
			 2003-04 498 6,682 * 235 3,461 * 83 953 * 29 331 * 
			 2002-03 440 5,223 * 196 2,607 * 61 850 * 15 267 * 
			 2001-02 458 5,006 * 196 2,463 * 83 663 * 18 236 * 
			 2000-01 432 4,776 51 207 2,267 48 66 617 * 18 207 * 
			 1999-2000 487 4,901 * 212 2,423 * 57 612 * 16 181 * 
			 1998-99 410 4,636 7 188 2,316 * 55 598 * 8 184 * 
			 1997-98 467 4,824 * 208 2,293 * 58 559 * 17 179 * 
			 Total — — 67,287 — — 32,771 — — 8,852 — — 3,107 
			 (1) East of England SHA area includes the following historic organisations: Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire SHA Essex SHA Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire SHA.  Notes:  Finished in-year admissions: A finished in-year admission is the first period of in-patient care under one consultant within one health care provider, excluding admissions beginning before 1 April at the start of the data year. Admissions do not represent the number of in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year.  Data Quality: HES are compiled from data sent by over 300 national health service trusts and PCTs in England. The Information Centre for health and social care liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data via HES processes. While this brings about improvement over time, some shortcomings remain.  Assessing growth through time: HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards, During the years that these records have been collected, the NHS there have been ongoing improvements in quality and coverage. These improvements in information submitted by the NHS have been particularly marked in the earlier years and need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. Changes in NHS practice also need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. For example, a number of procedures may now be undertaken in out-patient settings and may no longer be accounted in the HES data. This may account for any reductions in activity over time.  All Diagnoses count of Mentions: These figures represent a count of all mentions of a diagnosis in any of the 14 diagnosis fields in the HES data set. Therefore, if a diagnosis is mentioned in more than one diagnosis field during an episode, all diagnoses are counted.  Diagnosis Codes Used: F10 - Mental and behavioural disorders due to use of alcohol K70 - Alcoholic liver disease T51 - Toxic effect of Alcohol  Ungrossed Data: Figures have not been adjusted for shortfalls in data (i.e. the data are ungrossed).  Low Numbers: Due to reasons of confidentiality, figures between 0 and 5 have been suppressed and replaced with "*" (an asterisk).  PCT and SHA Data Quality: PCT and SHA data was added to historic data years in the HES database using 2002-03 boundaries, as a one-off exercise in 2004. The quality of the data on PCT of treatment and SHA of treatment is poor in 1996-97, 1997-98 and 1998-99, with over a third of all finished episodes having missing values in these years. Data quality of PCT of general practitioner (GP) practice and SHA of GP practice in 1997-98 and 1998-99 is also poor, with a high proportion missing values where practices changed or ceased to exist. There is less change in completeness of the residence-based fields over time, where the majority of unknown values are due to missing postcodes on birth episodes. Users of time series analysis including these years need to be aware of these issues in their interpretation of the data.  Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), the Information Centre for health and social care.